MIT Club Frisbee: Grim Beavers and Munchers Compete at Sectionals
Over the weekend, both MIT Men’s Club Frisbee teams competed in their respective conference tournaments for the 2024-2025 season
Matthew Barnett–The Tech
Over the weekend, both MIT Men’s Club Frisbee teams competed in their respective conference tournaments for the 2024-2025 season. The Grim Beavers (A Team) hosted the Metro Boston D-I Men’s Tournament on Briggs Field, while the Woodmunchers (B Team) traveled to UMass Amherst to play in the New England Developmental Tournament.
Grim Beavers Results
The Grim Beavers struggled to open the weekend, getting shut out by Northeastern A 0-15 and falling to Boston University 6-15 on Saturday. The team continued their skid into Sunday, dropping a third game to Boston College 1-15 before finally finding their rhythm against UMass Lowell, securing a decisive 15-7 victory that set the stage for a high-stakes showdown against Harvard A.
Despite a rocky start, MIT remained in contention for the last bid to the New England D-I Regional Tournament — their game against Harvard was a true win-or-go-home scenario, and the players rose to the occasion.
The Grim Beavers got out to an early 4-2 lead, further extended to 7-4 behind a string of deep throws by Kyle Roke ’26.
MIT’s offensive momentum was stifled by adjustments made in Harvard’s zone defense; although Grim made many promising drives, diving catches, and audacious throws, Harvard forced and capitalized upon many timely turnovers to take the lead going into halftime, 7-8. This defensive momentum continued into the second half, with Harvard scoring three more points to increase MIT’s deficit, 7-11.
Requiring five scores to take the lead and having only 20 minutes left in the game, MIT continued to fight on. After converting a long 10-minute point, Grim quickly punched in a second score within a minute to cut their deficit to two with six minutes to go. Needing a miracle, Coach Axis Sivitz put two freshmen into the game, Zach Perry ’28 and Ethan Phan ’28, and called out “BU Zone,” a new alignment that the team had been practicing for the past three weeks.
This last-effort change stifled Harvard’s rolling offense, allowing Grim to force turnovers and even the game 11-11 with pivotal plays from Phan and Rich Wang ’27.
Having reached a tie, MIT v. Harvard went into sudden-death overtime, often called the universe point, with the next score winning the game. Despite Harvard receiving the disc first, Vincent Fan G seized the moment on defense, laying out a fully horizontal diving block that caused Andrew Okyere ’25 to force a crucial turnover. This converted into a game-winning score to Roke that secured MIT’s win in dramatic fashion. With the win, Grim improved to 3-0 vs. Harvard this season and successfully punched their ticket to Regionals in three weeks.
Woodmunchers Results
The Woodmunchers’ trip to Amherst was marked by poor weather; early morning snowfall blanketed the fields and delayed the start of the tournament for 90 minutes due to travel difficulties. When all was said and done, the games began at 11 a.m.
In their first game on the frosty fields, Munch struggled against Northeastern C, losing 2-12 as they sought to find their groove. Their next game didn’t afford them much help — due to a double-booked field, Munch was forced onto wet, marshy grass to face UMass Amherst B in the mud. Despite dropping the game 2-15, their spirits were high for their two scores against the would-be tournament runner-ups.
Returning from the grass with muddied jerseys, the Munchers beat Tufts C 9-5, led by a pair of scores by both Charley Cheng ’27 and graduate student Dongqi Wang.
Munch dropped their next game against Tufts B 4-10, but the game was not without controversy. Around the middle of the match, a Tufts B player hucked the disk toward the end zone from about midfield, but caught Karthik Vedula ’27 on his follow-through. As Vedula was treated for a massive knot on his temple, the Tufts B player argued that Vedula fouled him with his head before he threw the frisbee, even though the disc landed 50 yards away out the back of the endzone. The game continued from then, and MIT closed the day with a 1-3 record.
Sunday proved to be a challenging outing for Munch. Five of their 14 players returned to campus to tend to other business, leaving a squad of nine to finish off what the team had started.
The team was tested right away, facing Brown B in the 4th place quarterfinals. Making adjustments to compensate for their lower-manned squad, MIT employed a “wall” zone defense that helped limit big plays as the wind picked up. Joaquin Perkins ’26 scored a callahan against Brown, intercepting their tipped swing pass in the endzone to put MIT up a point. In the end, however, Munch dropped the game, losing 3-9.
Just like Grim, Munch played the last game of their tournament against Harvard, taking on Harvard’s B Team for 7th place in the tournament. Down to seven people due to injuries, Munch powered through and kept the game close against their rivals from down Mass Ave. They employed their adjusted wall defense and used the wind to their benefit to supplement their lack of substitutions. The game was broken open by a massive upwind pass from Cheng to Ellery Stahler ’25, which was converted with a pass back to Cheng to score. Munch won the game 8-6 to conclude the tournament on a high note, returning home having beat Harvard.